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Welcome to PC-BSD®!

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{{citelink|url=http://www.pcbsd.org/|txt=PC-BSD®}} began in 2005 when Kris Moore presented the first beta version of a {{citelink|url=http://www.freebsd.org/|txt=FreeBSD}} operating system pre-configured for desktop use. Since then, PC-BSD® has matured into a polished, feature-rich, free-of-charge, open source operating system that meets the desktop needs of the beginner to the advanced user alike.

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Welcome to PC-BSD and many thanks for your interest.

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PC-BSD® is essentially a customized installation of FreeBSD, not a forked derivative. Since the underlying FreeBSD system has been kept intact, you have a fully functional FreeBSD system under the hood. PC-BSD® provides a graphical installer, a graphical package management system, and dozens of graphical utilities that make PC-BSD® suitable for desktop use. As a user of PC-BSD®, you don’t have to worry about configuring a FreeBSD system for desktop use; instead you can simply install and start using it.

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Early in 2005, Kris Moore, the founder of [http://www.pcbsd.org/ PC-BSD], presented the first beta version of PC-BSD to the community. What some [http://www.freebsd.org/ FreeBSD] advocates had been waiting for for years had finally arrived: an easy-to-use FreeBSD-based operating system for the desktop, with very little configuration necessary. A polished, full-featured, free-of-charge, open-source operating system with a BSD license, based on FreeBSD, that anybody could use, from the beginner to the advanced user alike, was a dream slowly being realized.

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With the arrival of easy-to-use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux Linux] distributions (another [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix Unix]-like operating system) and their immediate success, it became obvious that there was a large niche market. However, Kris thought that the Linux market could have advanced more in user friendliness. The BSD community had very good server operating systems such as FreeBSD, [http://www.netbsd.org/ NetBSD], and [http://www.openbsd.org/ OpenBSD], but none for the desktop market. Taking a strong liking to FreeBSD due to its design, speed, and robustness, Kris Moore decided to create a user-friendly and intuitive FreeBSD based operating system for desktop use.

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The main difference between PC-BSD® and FreeBSD is that PC-BSD® is geared towards desktop use, while FreeBSD has been created with server use in mind. Other differences include:

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PC-BSD is a desktop-oriented operating system to the likes of Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X. It is based on FreeBSD which is well known for its stability, scalability and openness.

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* PC-BSD® pre-configures at least one desktop environment during installation

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* PC-BSD® is installed by a graphical installer rather than a text based installer

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PC-BSD started off as an independent project, but since 10 October 2006 PC-BSD is (financially) backed and supported by the enterprise-class hardware solutions provider [http://www.ixsystems.com/ iXsystems].

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* the PC-BSD® installer supports additional features such as configuring ZFS and encryption during installation

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* PC-BSD® provides a graphical software management system

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* PC-BSD® provides a Control Panel of graphical utilities for configuring the system

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* PC-BSD® has an ''rc.conf'' and a ''sysctl.conf'' that are tweaked for a desktop environment

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* PC-BSD® comes pre-configured with a number of automatic scripts to perform tasks such as connecting digital cameras or USB memory sticks

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PC-BSD® started off as an independent project, but since October, 2006 PC-BSD® is (financially) backed and supported by the enterprise-class hardware solutions provider {{citelink|url=http://www.ixsystems.com/|txt=iXsystems}}.

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The rest of this section discusses:

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* [[Goals and Features]]

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* [[What's&nbsp;New&nbsp;in&nbsp;9.1]]

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* [[PC-BSD®&nbsp;Releases]]

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* [[PC-BSD® for Linux Users]]

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[[category:handbook]]

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[[category:introduction]]

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Revision as of 02:03, 21 April 2013

(Sorry for the inconvenience)

Editor: please update template:UseTOC/9.2

Translator: please use {{UseTOC{{putVers}}|TOC}}

Protection (edit): sysopEdited by: Tigersharke

Welcome to PC-BSD®!

PC-BSD®[1] began in 2005 when Kris Moore presented the first beta version of a FreeBSD[2] operating system pre-configured for desktop use. Since then, PC-BSD® has matured into a polished, feature-rich, free-of-charge, open source operating system that meets the desktop needs of the beginner to the advanced user alike.

PC-BSD® is essentially a customized installation of FreeBSD, not a forked derivative. Since the underlying FreeBSD system has been kept intact, you have a fully functional FreeBSD system under the hood. PC-BSD® provides a graphical installer, a graphical package management system, and dozens of graphical utilities that make PC-BSD® suitable for desktop use. As a user of PC-BSD®, you don’t have to worry about configuring a FreeBSD system for desktop use; instead you can simply install and start using it.

The main difference between PC-BSD® and FreeBSD is that PC-BSD® is geared towards desktop use, while FreeBSD has been created with server use in mind. Other differences include:

PC-BSD® pre-configures at least one desktop environment during installation

PC-BSD® is installed by a graphical installer rather than a text based installer

the PC-BSD® installer supports additional features such as configuring ZFS and encryption during installation

PC-BSD® provides a graphical software management system

PC-BSD® provides a Control Panel of graphical utilities for configuring the system

PC-BSD® has an rc.conf and a sysctl.conf that are tweaked for a desktop environment

PC-BSD® comes pre-configured with a number of automatic scripts to perform tasks such as connecting digital cameras or USB memory sticks

PC-BSD® started off as an independent project, but since October, 2006 PC-BSD® is (financially) backed and supported by the enterprise-class hardware solutions provider iXsystems[3].